An eternity....

I have lots of updates since I did not find any time to blog in the last 2 months.
But today, I just want to say one thing:
"Finally....Finally got an MBA admit....from Foster School of Business"
Yey...

More blogs in the offing.

Third Milestone

Yes, I completed another milestone today. Submitting my third application just on time feels good. It takes a lot of team effort even while applying to B Schools. So don't just expect to indulge in teams and show your collaborative side once you get admission. Even while applying, you need to consult people, check out surveys and rankings, meet people, write essays sometimes discussing it with others, getting essays reviewed and getting the recos done. It takes a hell lot of team effort.

Looking forward to the next deadline in another 5 days.

A beautiful girl

Sometimes all it takes to remember a day is the face of a beautiful girl. And that some time was today for me. Since I had a long late night meeting scheduled, so I decided to grab some burger in the Forum mall near my office. I went along with my team mate and we ordered as per our tastes. There were only 2 seats available adjoining another table which had 1 girl and 2 of her friends (boys) sitting on it.
At first, I did not notice the girl. In fact, anyone there. Then I happened to see her when she got up to get something extra to eat. One of those rare moments when you just keep on seeing something for its sheer beauty. This was the moment. She wore a maroon salwar suit and maroon nail polish on her nails. She had beautiful eyes and was wearing fancy maroon slippers. I could hardly hear what she or her friends were talking about.
Anyways, with her face photographed in my mind, I return to my boring world of software projects, thinking about B School essays, B schools, writing Essays and occasionally playing guitar.

Essay Updates

Finally, I decided to gather the strength to think about MBA essays. Yes, I am partly kidding. I am actually taking a short break (around 4-5 days) from essay writing. Over the past 1 month, I was so exhausted by all the essays and the creative thinking that goes into it. The deadlines were the worst. They kept on revolving in my head for the past 1 month. The last week saw those deadlines orbit at enormously high speeds around my head. This forced me to relieve some stress and take a break.

By the way, I am in a fairly reasonable position as far as my essays are concerned.
Out of around 8 schools that I plan to apply, I have already applied to 2.
I have almost final drafts for 2 more schools (Foster and Haas). I will be revising them once more before the final submission.

So that leaves me to write essays for 4 more schools:
1. McCombs
2. Kenan-Flagler
3. Goizueta
4. Kelley

I know their deadlines and still I am taking it easy. May be I am used to it now. There are some essays from these 4 schools which require a totally new perspective. The rest of them can be created using the essays from the first 4 schools.
I think I will miss the deadline for at least one school. Lets see.

Taking a break while writing essays is very important. I did not and that's why spent several sleepless nights last week. Well, watching an odd movie or so does not really constitute a break. You have to completely switch off your mind and not think about the essays. Oops did I just write a blog on Essays ? Not again. Switch off. ssshhhhhh....

Thank You Clearadmit

Last weekend, I got the following message on Facebook:


--------------------
Subject: Clear Admit Career Guide Winner!

Dear S,

Thank you for becoming a fan of Clear Admit on Facebook! You have been randomly selected to win a Clear Admit Career Guide of your choice! You may choose to receive any one of our five Career Guides, Consulting, Investment Banking, Entrepreneurship, Marketing, or Healthcare.

Once you have made your selection, please e-mail thisperson at clearadmit dot com with your choice!

Congratulations!
The Clear Admit Team
--------------------------

I was delighted and immediately emailed my choice to the concerned person.
And today I received my guide and am very excited about it since it has a few schools of my choice. It may turn out to be a life saver or a bonus type of thing.

Wake Up Sid - Very Refreshing

Last night, I went to watch Wake Up Sid with my friends. Well, whatever the reviews say, the movie is very refreshing and vivid. I enjoyed the movie. There is no special story, no special dialogues, no glamorous locations etc., but the movie still makes you feel good.
The movie captures little moments in the life of Sid and Aisha. The music is simply awesome. I have been humming it since the last 2 weeks. The music has an easy going feel to it especially the song Iktara and Kya Karoon. The movie captures the Mumbai life to some extent. The pace is also nice and the background music again is simply fantastic. It beats at all the right moments.
Konkana Sen is once again brilliant. She is really an admirable actor who completely casts herself into the role she is enacting. Ranbir is also good and is an excellent fit for the role.
Overall, the movie is a good watch and will not let you down. Inglorious bastards is the next movie on my radar since my friend has labeled as a must watch.

Long time...no write

Its been around 2 weeks since I last wrote a blog. Yes, I regret that. Not because I did not update people with my writing, but because I missed writing for my own. Writing is a very different beast especially essay writing. I realized this when one of my reviewers pointed out my long answers and told me to be more succinct.
When I looked at my answers, I immediately got the point. They were not as precise as I wanted them to be. In fact, they were too long and wordy. There are several essay themes. Well, the kind of personal essay themes are difficult to write especially for a technical person like me. I wish I had taken some creative writing classes.

Anyways, the last 2 weeks have been a roller coaster ride. From completing essays for 2 different schools to a freak laptop accident when a curtain rod fell over it to wading through waist high rain water on double road at midnight. Well, the laptop incident was the most depressing one. To lose a laptop at this juncture is the last you want. Well, the screen and the speaker are the most damaged components. 2 of the keys have also become dysfunctional. For now, I have made temporary arrangements by connecting an external round (not flat) 15 inch monitor and a USB keyboard. Once the essay season is over, I will look towards buying a new one.

Get-together

Well, an Eid celebration was all that it took to socialize with old college friends. It was a nice get-together that brought a lot of nostalgic feelings along with it. It reminded me of the times that we had spent in college, those particular incidents, night-outs, endless computer game sessions and strategy making, talking about our friend's best rated hill station i.e. nandi hills (pun intended) and what not. There is no doubt that college days are the best.

Coming to the present, it was one of the few good home made lunches I have had in Bangalore. Thanks to my friend and his wife for hosting the get-together and doing the preparations. To call the food delicious would be an understatement. There was Veg and Non-Veg Biryani, Sevaiya, Cutlets, Chana and Dahi Bada. Even typing it in the blog makes me drool. I wish there were more such get-togethers.

The MBA Tour

This weekend is the MBA tour weekend in Bangalore and it is the first time that the MBA tour is happening over a span of 2 days. It is amazing that out of Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore, only Bangalore has an MBA tour spread over 2 days. That tells us a lot about the number of actual and potential applicants. I attended the event today and found it good but still below my expectations.

While going to the MBA tour, I did not expect so much traffic especially given that its a long weekend here. May be rains have forced a lot of people to rethink on their short vacation plans or many people are preparing for the next long weekend that is just 6 days away. MG Road is a total mess these days especially the stretch right before Trinity circle. I reached on time and registered for the event. I attended all the sessions before the fair and they seemed to be pretty generic. Given that this time I am better prepared, I was frustrated that some people had very basic or even irrelevant questions or may be I knew the answers. Whatever it was, I started feeling like the most knowledgeable. Probably the MBA tour is meant to spread awareness among the Indian applicants about most general questions and clear their doubts. Since I had attended one last year and am now well versed with the process by reading several books, I did not find it interesting.

Once the sessions were over and the fair about to start, I noticed that there are far fewer people this time than last year. But there seemed to be a lot of people either still in college or having just 1-2 years of experience. Not sure if that is good or bad. But the fair started very similarly to last year and there was huge crowd in front of all the big schools. I tried listening to the conversations on 2 of them and I understood that it is better to ask my questions after probably an hour when the crowd is tired and disseminates. So, me and my friends decided to eat something outside and come back. Well, it was worth it since most of the crowd started to lose interest and there were many empty counters.

I basically had some very specific questions. I first went to ESADE and asked my question. The director straight away told me laughingly that this is a very specific question. She drank some water and bought some time and then gave a general answer, which was acceptable given the other people standing surrounding me. She redirected me to an ESADE alumni and that guy (doing his internship in India) was very polite and answered all my questions. I felt very nice to know that he has the same undergrad degree as me and is into the same specialization that I am interested in. I then went over to HEC and the Rice University counters and had brief chats with their admissions representative. But I understood from my first interaction with ESADE that this forum is not meant for very specific school questions. Well, not exactly true, but if they have an alumni, the alumni will answer all the specific questions. I think the schools should bring along more alumni to help serious applicants. Anyway, there are always online channels to interact with them, but discussing face to face sometimes help.

First Application 2009

My first application for the year 2009 i.e. ISB has been completed and submitted. Although, there is still one recommendation to go, but I hope it will be in by tomorrow.
After going through the application once again, I finally decided to submit it and wait for the results. I hope this time I get at least an interview call. But, mind you, that is not the goal. The goal is to get in. The goal is to get admitted to one of the best B schools. Lets see how the application comes along.
It was an intense day for me. I did a lot of programming today and a lot of reading including the ISB application. It feels great after such a marathon. But, I have to admit that this was just a trailer and there are many more marathons to come.
I wish I could catch some action at the US Open final (01:30 am), off course on TV.

Update: The second recommendation has also been submitted.

Why foreign policy matters

Just wanted to archive a very good speech by Shashi Tharoor on "Why foreign policy matters". It is a must read. Click on the below link to read the speech.

Why Foreign Policy Matters

The Mint Lounge

Lets get straight to the point. I have been reading the Mint newspaper since close to 2 years and there has not been a single moment where I had to say that I did not like something in this newspaper. The paper is really a welcome change from all the other business newspapers available today, which is very few by the way (Now slowly more foreign publications have started to at least start an India-dedicated website).

The newspaper's presentation and its use of colors is simply awesome. Everything attracts you into reading everything. Started as a newspaper to change the way business news was read, in only 4 cities Delhi, Mumbai, Chandigarh and Bangalore, it has come a long way now being circulated in Kolkata, Pune and Chennai as well. I really do not remember who suggested me to subscribe to it, but I am thankful to whoever it was. I really like the articles where it focuses on mixing politics, business, economy, environment, development etc. particularly the "our view" and "their views" section.

Mint on Saturday comes along with Mint Lounge, which I feel is the star of the show. Lounge is one paper which can be preserved and archived for decades similar to the way our older generation used to do when Dharmyug was the trend in those times. It covers multiple aspects from a big shot's biography to at least 2 articles on travel to a fantastic recipe to movie, music, book reviews to enthralling articles by Shobha Narayan and earlier Vir Sanghvi. I really keep the Lounge near my pillow and go over it for the entire week until the next one comes along.

PS : I do not work for Mint :). All opinions are entirely mine.

ISB essays version 3.0

Now that the ISB deadline is really looming over me and probably most of the fellow applicants, its time I take a re-look at my essays and modify wherever needed.
I had had my essays reviewed by 2 of my friends and they provided me with valuable suggestions to make the essays look even much better. Reviews are very necessary as they give you an opportunity to look at your essays from a different perspective.

I think I am pretty much done with my ISB essays now except possibly minor changes to the goals essay. But I am not so much in favor of touching any of the essays. The time has come to submit them and kick start the submission cycle with ISB. I even reviewed my whole application again yesterday and I realized that I should have done it earlier because it took a lot of time to make some necessary modifications.

Beware that the ISB essays are pretty short i.e. 300 words, so you are in fast forward mode when it comes to explaining anything about you or your goals or your achievements. But all the other schools ask for relatively longer answers and it will be a completely different thing to elaborate on what you already have written for ISB or what you have thought of during your "digging your life" process.

How to tie a tie

ISB needs applicants to upload a photograph in a particular dimension and resolution. I had a photograph from last year, but it was with just a formal shirt. I thought I would get another one clicked in a formal shirt with a tie and a coat. Yes, you are right. I do not want to leave any stone unturned this time. So, I went and got myself a nice looking photograph in my pen drive.

Before going for the photo studio, I wanted to tie a tie. I have always watched the videos on Youtube about how to tie a tie and yet forget about it in a few days. I am not used to wearing ties and that's the reason I forgot how to tie a tie. I wonder how people before the search giant google emerged would have learnt all such things. Its true that our generation cannot imagine such a scenario.

Well, luckily I clicked on the first search result on Youtube and it was so good that I tied my tie in the first try itself. Literally no subsequent attempts. Here it goes:

ISB Essays - Drafts version 2.0

After attending Duke's admission event yesterday at the Taj Residency, I thought I would go back home and finish my ISB essays. I liked the confidence this time and little did I know that rethinking on your essays can be more time consuming than actually writing first drafts. So, I finished the first 3 essays and left the re-applicant essay for Sunday morning. When you do not finish the work that you planned for the day, the nights are pretty much sleepless.

So, I woke up late, wrote ahem rewrote the re-applicant essay and sent it across for review to some of my friends. I really like the way you stumble upon idea after idea while thinking about your essays and inventorying your life.

Now I think the ISB essays look neat and succinct. But, there is always something unexpected that will pop put at the last moment you hit the submit button on the online application. I hope I can now really start writing outlines for Fuqua, Kenan-Flagler and Foster.

PS: Resume creation is postponed to next week.

Revisit - TODOs

In a recent training session, there was a question about who prepares TODO lists. And there were very few hands that went up. I was one of them, but I said only for office purposes. The trainer said you should try making it for daily work too. Well, she was right and I do do it sometimes. But there often comes a phase when you forget all the TODOs and just go along with the flow. Its like there is someone telling you to not remember lists and take up all the tasks later. Then there is a phase where you do not have many TODOs but you try to create some just to keep yourself busy. Now that the essay season is in full swing, I wish for those phases.

Anyways, coming back to the list, here is what needs to be done:
1. Revisit ISB essays and give them a new look (learnings from a book).
2. Start writing Fuqua Essays
3. Prepare a Resume

All these TODOs should get over by this weekend unless I procrastinate.

PS: I have already sent my GMAT and TOEFL scores to all the schools that I plan to apply and there is no looking back now.

An Eye Opener - Almost

You (the faithful blog reader) must be wondering what am I up to. Well, I was not actually writing essays since the last 5 days. In fact, I was doing something that would help me in my essays. I was reading this book "Great Application Essays for Business Schools" by Paul Bodine. I have to admit that I made a big mistake to not read it much earlier. I would recommend this book to everyone who is looking to write essays for B schools. It was really an eye-opener.

In fact, I had my first deadline on 2nd September for HEC. But after reading this book, I realized that my essays have a lot of room to improve. It was because of this book and several other in the pipeline I plan to read that I took the decision to postpone my essay submission to HEC to the next round i.e. 26th October. And I think it was a wise decision.

There are some more books that I plan to read. I have heard a lot about Richard Montauk and Avi Gordon. Lets see which one I get to read. Its sad that many book stores in India do not keep such books at all.

So, last week was full of motivation and a self drive to do something. Starting from the influential book to a training on "planning and organizing" to meeting a Kellogg 2009 graduate, it was all full of gyan and about the desire to succeed.

Most Creative Essay question

One of the schools that I am applying to has one of the most creative essay questions that I have seen till now. The school is Kelley school of business and one of its essay question goes like this:


Suppose you had to choose three people-people alive now or people from another era-to travel with you on a cross-country automobile trip. Who would you choose and why? What would you hope to learn from them? (Think carefully about the company you want on those long stretches through Nebraska and Kansas.)

I know this essay will enforce many applicants to burn the midnight oil and think carefully. It sure will entangle all my brain wires.

TOEFL results out

Before going to sleep last night, I somehow remembered that I had given TOEFL almost 3 weeks back and the results should have been out. So, I thought I would give it another day and wait for an email in my inbox. To my surprise, even till now there was no email. I really do not know if they send a score report by email.

I decided to check the website and login into my account. The scores were available and I just wished that I could get at least 100. And yes I did get above 100. The score is 107 and I am delighted. On seeing the detailed results, I was somewhat bemused. I did very well in my speaking section and that was the section where I got the lowest marks. Huh...

Anyways, one hurdle gets out of my way and I feel a little relaxed now. The mounting essay pressure is not yet relieved. Next thing to do is to send my gmat and toefl scores to all the schools that I am applying.

A turning point

I was watching this movie on Youtube when I suddenly realized how important a dialogue in this film was in the context of finding some motivation while writing my essays.

Here it goes:
"Zindagi mein ek zabardast ghumav dena hai"

Have a look yourself: